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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28363863">Grace Potter and the Poorly Run School</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryElizabethPerkins/pseuds/MaryElizabethPerkins'>MaryElizabethPerkins</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter if Harry looked like Lily [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Albus Dumbledore Bashing, BAMF Filius Flitwick, BAMF Minerva McGonagall, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Neglectful Albus Dumbledore, Or More Like, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend, Severus Snape Bashing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:35:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,956</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28363863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryElizabethPerkins/pseuds/MaryElizabethPerkins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Continuation of Severus Snape and the Reincarnated Lily.</p><p>Grace Potter must move on from the events of her first three months at Hogwarts. Her goal is to just have a peaceful school life, but Snape's trial is comming up, there are rumours about a new Potions teacher, and Quirrell might be up to something.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Harry Potter if Harry looked like Lily [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077218</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone, I'm back! As you may know, the last work was supposed to stand on its own, but I liked the universe and wanted to keep writing in it. I have quite a lot planned out. </p><p>Normally, I would write the entire thing and then upload it once I'm done. That's what I did with the last one, which was the reason I could upload so many chapters in such a short time frame. This will be too long for me to do that, so I've decided to upload as I write.</p><p>Thanks for all the hits, comments and kudos on the last installment. It truely means a lot. </p><p>I hope you will enjoy this too.</p><p>/Mezzy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grace Potter sat in the Great Hall, eating her dinner. For the first time since she started attending Hogwarts a few months ago, she felt completely at ease. Yesterday, Professor Snape had been taken in for questioning and the whole school was buzzing with the news.</p><p>At first, she hadn’t been sure if the police took it seriously. They could have just taken him in for questioning, decided that nothing criminal had happened, and skipped a trial entirely in favour of releasing him. Now, however, it had been almost two days, and rumour had it Professor Snape was sure to be convicted. </p><p>“What are you thinking about?” </p><p>It was Hermione Granger asking. She was Grace’s best friend, along with Ron Weasley. They had met for the first time on the Hogwarts Express, all three of them. At first, Grace and Ron both found Hermione rather annoying. She often had a bossy tone of voice and couldn’t help but blabber on and on about what she had read. At night, the Gryffindor first year girl’s dorm room never got sufficiently dark until Hermione finally closed her book. Eventually, Grace and Ron and the other Gryffindor first years came around to her since she would always be there to help. A certain incident with a mountain troll might have sped up the process a bit.</p><p>“Snape,” replied Grace. “What do you think will happen to the Potions lessons now if there’s no teacher?”</p><p>“They must appoint another one, won’t they?” Hermione said. “Percy, has it ever happened before that a teacher just left before the year was over?” She turned to Ron’s brother Percy, who was the oldest student she knew. He also happened to be a prefect.</p><p>Percy turned around to face Hermione, Grace and Ron. “Hmm. I can’t remember any… Well there was that one time in third year when Professor Vector had to go to the hospital quite suddenly. She stayed for three weeks.”</p><p>“No teacher for three weeks!” gasped Hermione.</p><p>“Sounds like fun!” Ron reached for his glass. “Do you think they will let us skip Potions for the rest of the year then? I mean, no one likes it anyway.”</p><p>“I certainly hope not,” said Percy. “Last time they took in an old graduate to just make sure we sat in the classroom during the scheduled time and did assignments from the book. I’m taking my O.W.L.s this year and I definitely want to be able to get help from a real teacher.”</p><p>“Would having some dude as a teacher really be much difference from Snape?” Ron asked. “I mean, his teaching is to just write the instructions on the board and then creep around in the classroom for the rest of the lesson. A random guy would be an improvement!”</p><p>“Ron, I think he means that he would like a good teacher as a replacement rather than a babysitter,” Hermione reasoned.</p><p>-oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo-</p><p>Later the same evening, Grace did her charms homework in the Gryffindor common room when she heard a clicking sound behind her. She turned around and opened the window, letting in a gust of cool December air as well as a large brown owl.</p><p>The owl flew in and landed on the table. It stepped around a bit to make sure it didn’t stand on Grace’s, Ron’s, or Hermione’s books, and then extended a leg towards Grace, indicating that she should take the letter tied to it.</p><p>“What’s that?” asked Ron.</p><p>Grace rolled the note open.</p><p> </p><p>Miss Potter,<br/>
You are hereby called for questioning at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement regarding claims of harassment of yourself by Severus Snape. Please come to my office at the Ministry at eight o’ clock in the morning in two days.<br/>
Sincerely<br/>
Amelia Bones<br/>
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement</p><p> </p><p>“It’s from the police, I think” said Grace.</p><p>“The what?” Ron asked.</p><p>“The aurors, Ron. Police are muggle aurors,” Hermione clarified before looking back to Grace. “What do they want then?”</p><p>By now, the owl had grown impatient and flew back to the window. Grace opened it again and let it out. </p><p>“It doesn’t say it’s from the aurors. It says it’s from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”</p><p>“Yes,” said Ron, impatiently. “The aurors work for the DMLE. What did they say?”</p><p>“They want me to come to the Ministry and tell them about Snape the day after tomorrow. How do you think I will get there?”</p><p>“You ask McGonagall to use her floo of course!” said Ron.</p><p> “Her what?” Grace asked.</p><p>-oOo--oOo--oOo--oOo-</p><p>Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, opened her office door, letting in her colleagues Madam Sprout and Professor Flitwick. After transfiguring her usual chair reserved for guests into a bench for two, and treating her visitors to tea, she sat down.</p><p>“Today, Miss Potter and her friends came to me with a letter,” she started. “It was from the DMLE. They wanted to talk to her.”</p><p>Madam Sprout and Professor Flitwick were quiet.</p><p>“I told them she could use my floo to get there, of course,” McGonagall continued.</p><p>“Do you think she will be okay?” Madam Sprout asked. “She is awfully young and has gone through a lot.”</p><p>“She is famous as well,” Flitwick interjected. “People will stare at her when she goes in public, and even more so than usual considering…”</p><p>“-recent events.” McGonagall said. “I will write to Amelia Bones and ask her if I can come with Miss Potter in the place of her guardian. I feel she isn’t ready to be left alone in new environments just yet.”</p><p>“I was thinking more long-term,” said Sprout. “She will remember this forever. It was our responsibility as teachers to protect her and care for her, and we failed. Will she trust adults again? Will she be able to enjoy things her peers would, without worrying about someone following her? Will she have a good life?”</p><p>“We can’t know that yet, Pomona.” McGonagall said, dejected.</p><p>“This is not over yet!” Flitwick looked up at the other two. “There is still the trial. It will be hard for everyone involved, and it is our duty to support Grace through it. Then we support her afterwards. We have another six and a half years to do our best and put things right!”</p><p>“What can we do then?” asked McGonagall. “Dumbledore will probably keep Snape around anyways.”</p><p>“Not if we testify! If all three of us tell the DMLE and the school board Snape is unfit for his position, it would be politically impossible for Dumbledore to have him at the school. We could threaten to talk to the papers. Flitwick downed his entire cup of tea, leaping to his feet.</p><p>“We should ask Madam Pomphrey to talk to Grace. We can make sure that she is feeling alright.” Sprout put a hand on Flitwick’s shoulder, quietly asking him to sit down again. “She could make sure that we do have the entire story and…” She trailed off.</p><p>“And what?” McGonagall asked, putting her teacup back in the saucer on the desk between them.</p><p>“And make sure Snape didn’t go any further.” Sprout finished.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Madam Pomphrey gives Grace a check-up to see how bad the situation is in preparation for the trial.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning was a cold one. She had woken up so early in the morning it was almost night, and sat on the windowsill of the Gryffindor first year girls dorm, looking out. The grounds had been frozen just enough to have a fine layer of ice crystals covering the grass, but it hadn't yet snowed.</p><p>She thought about the upcoming winter break. All the other girls would go home to their families for Christmas. Well, all the girls except Parvati. She didn't celebrate Christmas, but she still went home, so it had the same effect. Grace would be all alone. It would be her first Christmas alone. If that would be better than being with the Dursleys she didn't know. They were horrible to her, but at least they provided some background chatter and it was nice to hear the TV from her cupboard and she liked how their Christmas food smelled.</p><p>Grace wished she could remember her first Christmas, the one she must have celebrated with her parents. Christmas was all about spending time with the family, right? So as she didn't count the Dursleys as family, only relatives, she had only had one real Christmas in her life. But then again, in primary school they taught her that the meaning of Christmas was to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Who was also his own father, God. And the Holy Spirit. That was confusing. She wondered if that could be explained with magic, and if the Wizards believed in the same religions in the same ways as the Muggles did. She herself didn't really know what to believe.</p><p>When the rest of the girls woke up, she left the window to come chat and get dressed. The rest of the morning went by in a flurry, with breakfast and whatnot. The lessons started and she fell into her normal pattern of sitting quietly besides her friends, letting Hermione answer all the questions. Hermione liked the attention better. </p><p>Then the day took an unexpected turn. It all happened quite suddenly. One minute they were in Herbology, and the next they were escorted to the hospital wing. All the first years gathered in the far end of the room, far away from the occupied beds of sick students. Grace looked up at a poster on the wall of something that looked a lot like a Muggle X-ray picture, aside from the fact that the fracture seemed to break and then slowly heal before breaking again, when Madam Pomphrey welcomed them.</p><p>"Welcome to the hospital wing, everyone. Some of you have already acquainted yourself with it, but for everyone else, my name is Madam Pomphrey. We have recently decided among the staff that all students should receive yearly check ups to make sure that you are growing and feeling well. Who wants to start?"</p><p>No one said anything.</p><p>"Is there not any brave person who wants to set an example?"</p><p>There was some rustling among the Gryffindors and Parvati stepped forward.</p><p>"Gryffindors first it is. Everyone else can return to their lessons. I will call on the rest in the next few days. Come along then!"</p><p>The checkup had been… It was… She didn't like it. It started out about the same as it had in primary school: height and weight and seeing if the spine was straight. Then Madam Pomphrey had moved on to questions. </p><p>How was school so far? Did she feel safe? Was she comfortable with all the staff?</p><p>She was tempted to bring out sassy Grace, the one who had declined Dudley's offer of dipping her head in a toilet by saying that the toilet might feel nauseous with Dudley's head in it, but decided to just not answer instead. Had they even read the article?</p><p>Her internal question was answered when Madam Pomphrey pulled her chair closer.</p><p>"Miss Potter, I think that we could depart a bit from the standard questions here. I must know, do you feel safe at school when Professor Snape isn't here?"</p><p>How should she answer that? Could she even trust Pomphrey? Before she could decide what to do, her thoughts decided to just slip out anyway.</p><p>"Oh it is all fine and dandy except Mr Filch has a torture chamber he wants to use on us students, and then there's the forbideen corridor that leads to a painful death, and there must be something dangerous in the Forbidden Forrest, but there's no fence or anything to prevent it from coming here, and…" and then she realised what she had done. </p><p>She sassed an adult. Whelp, time for a beating. She was too close to run away and Madam Pomphrey was between her and the door. Grace shut her eyes. There was no blow. She tensed, still waiting. By now she could see colours dancing on the insides of her closed eyelids. Red. Black. Green - no, yellow. Then red again. Still no hit.</p><p>Then Grace felt a hand on her shoulder. She winced, imagining how the grip would tighten more and more and more until all the muscle and fat and whatever soft parts there were in her shoulder were squeezed out of the way, leaving a dent, like how the water redistributed in a squeezed water balloon.</p><p>"I'm not going to hurt you," Madam Pomphrey said.</p><p>Yeah, right. Like how Uncle Vernon always said it wouldn't hurt if she wasn't such a crybaby.</p><p>But the pain never came and she carefully opened one eye, ready to instantly close it again. Madam Pomphrey sat in front of her, hand on her shoulder, trying to make eye contact. Grace opened the other eye but made sure to look at her hair instead of the eyes.</p><p>"Don't be afraid of voicing your fears. We are here to help you. It is our job," Madam Pomphrey said. Her hair had probably been a rather nice shade of brown once, but now most of it was grey.</p><p>Madam Pomphrey sighed. "You know, we are trying to help you. There will be a trial and for that we need to know exactly what happened."</p><p>Finally, Grace spoke up. "Exactly what happened?" she asked in a small voice.</p><p>"Yes, the more evidence, the likelier it is that he will be convicted."</p><p>"You want him in prison?" Grace's voice cracked at the last word, and she cringed.</p><p>"Of course! It is clear as day to all of us in the staff that Severus -" She changed her mind before continuing. "-That Professor Snape is unfit as a teacher. He is unfair and he always picks at least one person in each class to bully. And we saw how he reacted when you showed up. I'm sorry to say I didn't act earlier, but I've promised to do better."</p><p>Grace looked up and met Madam Pomphrey's eyes. She immediately avoided the gaze by looking at her mouth instead. At the initial eye contact there had been a small smile that quickly faded and she pursed her lips instead. </p><p>"Do you trust me?" Madam Pomphrey asked.</p><p>Grace nodded. "Do you really need to know exactly what happened?"</p><p>"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement need to know everything. I am just providing them with medical expertise on you, so I only need to know the medical parts of the story, unless you want to tell me more?" Madam Pomphrey said the last part as a question even though it was technically a statement.</p><p>Grace had told her what happened. It wasn't all, of course. Mostly the things that had already been in the papers. But she told her nonetheless, and it was the first time she had told anyone without Hermione or Ron being there to tell the hardest parts in her place.</p><p>When she finished Madam Pomphrey asked if she could run some diagnostic charms on her. Apparently they were supposed to analyse her hormone levels and print a list of any imbalances. It took several awkward minutes of sitting on the side of the hospital bed, trying not to kick her legs, while a reddish light resembling that of a Muggle barcode reader made its way from her left side to the right before words started forming in the air above her head. In a neat cursive of the same red colour as before, a list formed. Grace couldn't read any of it because of the angle and the cursive, but Madam Pomphrey scribbled down what was probably a copy. Then she turned to Grace again.</p><p>"Hmmm. You have very low levels of somatotropin, Growth Hormone, which is worrying. Considering girls often have a growth spurt around age eleven and that you are already short, we might have to keep an eye on that within the next year or so. As compared to other girls your age, you also seem to have slightly lower levels of calcitonin, which means your bones won't grow as fast as theirs. Most importantly though, the test detected very high levels of cortisol. That means you've likely been under a lot of stress lately. Hmmm, I must bring these results to Director Bones."</p><p>Grace listened to the results, but she didn't really want to know. Her mind had gone to all the more interesting things she could be doing in the Gryffindor common room, like playing Gobstones or talking to Ron about Quidditch, or trying to pet Dean's cat. She started dangling her legs.</p><p>"Can I please go now, Madam Pomphrey?" she asked.</p><p>"Oh I suppose we can be done for today, at least, but I do have one more question. Did he ever touch you inappropriately?" Madam Pomphrey said.</p><p>"Nope!" It was the easiest thing to say today.</p><p>Madam Pomphrey narrowed her eyes. "Are you entirely certain? If he did it would be important for me to know. We could talk more about it another time, but before you go I need to know if we have to plan another meeting."</p><p>"Yep, totally sure!" Grace didn't wait to be dismissed, but Madam Pomphrey did move out of the way so she could reach the door. "Bye!"</p><p>She left the Hospital wing and promptly ran into her yearmates. They started chattering all at once, and Grace joined in. None of them noticed the nurse who quietly closed the door to take a short break. They didn't see her leaning against the doorframe or the tear that escaped the corner of her eye. The sigh she let out went unheard by everyone but herself. They were busy, and at the moment, happy.</p>
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